Five Town Rural Transit

Five Town Rural Transit, Inc. was first established as a citizen committee of residents from the five East End towns of Long Island, New York, in early 2004 and then incorporated as a non-profit organization in early 2005. The organization’s mission is to research and develop improved public transportation concepts for the East End.

What is East End Shuttle & How Does it Work?

East End Shuttle* is proposed as a new, coordinated shuttle train and bus network for the five East End towns. It will provide reliable public transportation from Speonk to Montauk on the South Fork and from Ronkonkoma to Orient Point on the North Fork. Here’s how it will work:

Shuttle trains on existing railroad tracks will arrive at trainastations in the five East End towns as often as every thirty minutes during peak periods, seven days a week, year round. There will be twenty-one rail shuttle stations in the new system - fifteen existing stations, five reactivated stations and one new station.

Seamless transfers will occur from trains to shuttle buses waiting at the stations to transport passengers to stops close to their final destinations along shuttle bus routes in surrounding villages and hamlets.

Shuttle buses will also pick up passengers at stops and bring them to the train stations. Enhanced bus stops will have parking facilities and a shelter with benches.

The Shuttle network will replace Long Island Rail Road trains and Suffolk County Transit buses on the East End. Shuttle trains will connect at Speonk and Ronkonkoma with LIRR trains destined for stops farther west on Long Island and Manhattan.

How much are the fares?The goal is to design The Shuttle to be very affordable — comparable to the $1 average fare charged by Suffolk County Transit buses for the use of the shuttles on the East End.

Who will pay to operate The Shuttle?Right now, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which owns the LIRR, collects more than $60 million in taxes each year from East End taxpayers. The Shuttle network is estimated to cost less than $40 million annually to operate and will be paid for from a portion of these existing MTA taxes.

Who will operate The Shuttle?A proposed East End Transportation Authority comprised of representatives of the five East End towns will be created to contract out and oversee the actual operation of The Shuttle.

* The proposal of an East End Shuttle was validated by the Volpe Center, U.S. Department of Transportation, in Cambridge, Massachusetts in its June 2009 final report. The report was paid for by New York State. Efforts are now underway to

Five Reasons to SupportThe Shuttle

1.

It will help reduce traffic and parking congestion.The Shuttle will be designed for East End residents, workers, second homeowners and visitors alike. If, as expected, 10% to 15% of drivers use the new system, it will significantly reduce gridlock now existing on the East End. Everyone will bene lit, even those who don’t use the system.

2.

The Shuttle will provide service as often as every 30 minutes, seven days a week, year round.The Shuttle will operate every day year round, not just during the summer months.

3.

The Shuttle will be affordable.The Shuttle is a far more efficient use of our MTA taxes than the present LIRR trains. This more efficient use of taxes will help keep fares low.

4.

It will protect the environment.Less road traffic means less pollution. The Shuttle will take thousands of cars off our roads every day — reducing fuel consumption and pollution.

5.

It will improve transportation on the East End.The Shuttle will provide, for the first time, local control over public transportation on the East End. It will replace LIRR trains and Suffolk County Transit buses. It will allow passengers to move around the East End faster and easier while reducing car traffic.